Understanding what I cannot accept                                                                                                      Tomi Olumide                                                                                                                                            2017                                                                                                                                                                    Acrylic and Dye pigment on paper                                                                                                                29.2 x 41.8cm                                                         

I worked on this painting during my summer holiday in Lagos Nigeria. Working on this in my small room/ studio posed a big health and safety issue only greatly concerned with after the entire process. at first because of the fumes which came from the printing ink and the dissolve of it with petrol, as a substitute for white spirit, which was very effective, however served as a great health and safety risk, but it was worth it. I would say the series of prints and paintings which I did on that day, were a way to get relief from the stresses life had brought, and the painting was a happy accident, which I was able to personally connect with intrinsically. The need to be in solitude, was the drive and influence in experimenting with this process. The stress and chocking factors of feeling stuck, pushed me to exert my frustration through a medium which I was familiar with, especially one which I had become fond of because I during my 2nd year college FMP.
Due to the mass production of the other works within it’s’ collection, I sped through the process of being gentle, precious with what I intended to create and spontaneously created the textures of the works with the aid of a wooden and rubber panelled squeegee, over a background of ready-made dye pigmented dry paper. I believe the fast paced work ethic helped the work turnout the way it did because if I did not work in such a manner it probably would have had a different result. I deem the entire process a making of erratic art, turned into a happy accident. The creation of these works was led by sentimentality, thus neglecting the objectivity of including symbols of significance, to show purposefulness and meaning relating to subjects not indulging in vanity and self-pity.

Silvia Pelissero, most commonly known as Agnes Cecile, creates polychromatic images that illustrate the human condition. Her portraits are not only aesthetically pleasing but are also profoundly expressive; the flow of the watercolours create movement thus animating the two-dimensional subjects. She shares an intimate and spiritual bond with her artwork; like most contemporary artists, she attempts to illustrate the ineffable through visual language. Within my appropriation of Agnes Cecile, I embraced the same element of organised chaos where the colours are spontaneous yet also structured. The vibrant acrylic colours of blue and red correlate with the subject’s inner subconscious; it physically expresses his inner turmoil as he is torn between emotions of rage and sadness. He is suspended at a state of pure confusion; despite him looking ahead beyond the page and yearning to move on, he is frozen in time. The dripping ink creates the impression of the subject melting and breaking his composure; he is vulnerable and malleable.

A passionate expression of the human condition and its ineffability.

Within my practice, I typically gravitate towards portraiture that express a blend between realism and abstraction. I am not interested in painting the human visage in meticulous detail, I prefer to experiment with the colours of the skin, hair and eyes to convey a variety of emotions or thoughts that normally remains unsaid. My art is very personal, I share an intimate relationship with the work I produce, and they are not designed to be political but rather expressive. Within this piece, I have chosen to illustrate one of my greatest fears: the erosion of love and passion. In a world where divorce rates are rapidly increasing, and the traditional morals of faithful relationships are depleting, it is undeniably inevitable for most people to express anxiety and pessimism towards love. The two faces in the centre of the canvas are youthful and brimming with passion; they are layered with rich, warm colours of fiery red and orange which radiates optimism and spontaneity. However, as the viewer’s eyes drift further way from the centre, they are confronted with two ghostly faces that are gradually fading away. These grey, lifeless faces are antithetical to the other high-spirited faces; much like our youthful bodies, the vehement relationship that the couple once embraced has now withered and gone cold. Their love and passion are now just a distant lingering memory that they meander away from thus becoming hostile and desolate.

A piece of my work that I would like to see enlarged and made more intricate would be the small elephant acrylic painting that I created in my manifesto zine. I would like to do a similar style to William Kentridge’s ‘If We Ever Get To Heaven’ refugee premonition exhibition. He normally works smaller (i.e. 1m square pieces) and in various medias such as ink, collage and charcoal. However, this exhibition uses performance, film and silhouettes to tell a narrative. Large silhouettes of people’s heads are carried, with a brass band and background imagery, that was being developed for years and shown before the refugee crisis that dominated the news.

I would like to turn my painting of the elephant into a cardboard cut-out and film someone walking along with it, maybe also making silhouettes of trees and grass and make them move as if the elephant is trekking across miles of land. I would like to then show this in a dark room to immerse the viewer in the film. Then I would maybe start to make more and more silhouettes of animals and maybe show a narrative of animal migration as a narrative.

Throughout this process I have expanded my knowledge on other artists work and understanding myself and my practice.

I enjoyed Task 9 as this helped me explain my work and practice in a way that I wouldn’t normally. However task 7 I found very challenging because the two texts were very dense and I struggled to understand them, I had to look over them several times before I could write a response.

I had preconceptions that I wouldn’t like task 8 as I don’t normally appropriate other people’s artwork on purpose. On reflection I really liked completing this task as I worked with paint in a way that I wouldn’t normally. I think I will experiment further with the process that I used in this task.

Overall I have liked this process and the short writing tasks, even though I have had difficulty with some of them.

I made this portrait for the contemporary project when I was exploring emotions and connecting them to colours. Reflecting on this piece I was tame in terms of scale as I only went to A3 but I would like to scale it up to a portrait 3 meters high. As my practice is beginning to involve abstracted shapes I would take the vague areas of colour in this portrait and make them more definitive as they scaled up. To extend it further I might abandon the flat plane and suspend the shapes in a mobile structure to let them move, overlap, and twirl reflecting changes in mindset and mood. Also as it would be large and suspended apart from each other people would be able to walk within it and interact, maybe gravitating to colours and shapes they are emotionally attracted to. Therefore, it wouldn’t just be a piece presenting my ever changing emotions but showing other peoples as well. If the shapes were made of translucent colours it would add another element to the piece because the different coloured shapes would overlap creating new colours which would fit better because there would be multiple colour combinations to convey different moods.

Natural

Ecological

Emotional

Colour orientated

Detached

Circles

Patterns

Imperfection

Symmetry

My practice has yet to be developed into a definite set of ideas and methods, rather I have come to university with experience in oil painting and printing, but I want to exploit the resources here and gain skills in sculpture, new media and printing before I refine into a practice. I have a keen interest in the natural world, exploring natural objects, patterns and phenomenons especially through printing processes. My intention is to discuss the relationships between humans and nature and how it can be improved.

The image I’ve chosen is a recent piece that represents my current interests in the natural world and how humans perceive it. It is a circular print of abstracted markings on a butterfly. The symmetry was particularly important because I am inspired by how organisms have evolved to be more symmetrical to increase attractiveness for reproduction. Although I made each stencil symmetrical when they printed there would be mistakes making the print imperfect. This felt right because in nature there isn’t 100% symmetry no matter how much humans genetically modify organisms. The words I chose are words I use to describe my work and support the image I’ve used. 

Due to the variety of the tasks I have been exposed to different ways of talking about art and the vocabulary of the subject. The tasks most useful for this aspect were tasks 3, 5 and 7 as these were the ones asking me to review pieces or compare texts and therefore read how others spoke about art. The task I found most engaging was task 3 where I researched the context of Barkley L. Hendricks and his piece Tyrone [Tyrone Smith], 1976. By reading articles written on this I was inspired to analyse each feature of the painting and understand the meanings behind the symbols and how the painting was groundbreaking for the context of the time in America. Tasks where I had to reflect on my own work or my practice made me realise that my practice is not finalised. I have concepts and mediums that I’m interested in like nature and printing, but my style and studio practice needs development. The hardest was task 7, I struggled with the art terminology and had to reread both texts and make notes before I fully comprehended them and was able to summarise and compare. I’m now aware that I need to read  more to become more fluent when talking about art pieces and movements.

Jason deCaires Taylor is a British contemporary sculptor using his art to draw awareness to environmental issues. He casts statues from pH neutral materials and submerges them underwater in places like Lanzarote. The concept is that these sculptures increase the surface area that coral can grow on. In addition, he hopes that these art installations will provide an attraction for tourists to distract them from further damaging the existing reefs. His pieces provide a gateway encouraging the audience to explore the ocean which hopefully will inspire them to protect it. As well as drawing attention to environmental issues, he has recently done a piece called “The Raft of Lampedusa” showing people crammed into a boat referencing the Syrian refugees who have died trying to escape the conflict in Syria. This piece is not a tribute to those who died but a statement of the responsibility we have for our global community.
A place that is a tourist attraction is also the place where so many died trying to reach a better life. The contrast of joy and grief in the same location emphasises the lack of balance and the need for Taylor’s notion of global responsibility.

Bibliography